While not on the same commercial level as ‘supergroups’ like the Traveling
Wilburys or Asia, the quartet known as the Lords of the New Church was most
certainly a supergroup to be reckoned with. The band’s two main members – Stiv
Bators (The Dead Boys’s vocalist) and Brian James (guitarist for The Damned) –
met in 1977 when Stiv’s band opened for British punk band The Damned in New York
in 1977. The two became friends and vowed to work together. After the Dead Boys’
split up, Stiv flew to England to audition as new vocalist for UK punkers Sham
69, who had lost their original voca...